I found this at a small second-hand car garage and bought it 95,000 miles fresh. I suspected the headgasket had gone or was on its way out, since coolant was disappearing somehwere. Amusingly I can get the wing mirrors to vibrate along to death metal blast beats, without blowing the standard speakers.

After just over a month of ignoring most of the warning lights I finally decided to stop driving it after finding mayo on the dipstick and a more alarming shudder than usual at startup.

Going to fix it all this weekend, so I started after work yesterday by opening the sump and leaving it to drizzle out.

My last fabia (before my CitiGo) was a 1.4 MPI, it is sooooo easy to work on! I think the most difficult part to remove is the starter motor (if the engine is still in the bay ) Beryls Chief Pilot nicknamed it "Ratty" until we changed the Timing chain, sounded awesome after that.

Was it on the original HG? I think they released a modified HG that was supposed to stop the Failure, even so 95K on the clocks with original bits is rather impressive for this engine :p

So at the side of the road outside the family home, and over the whole weekend...

The hardest bolts were the ones holding the cat to the manifold. Nearly got stuck on the awkward angle, eventually did it from below with a UJ, series of extensions and a breaker bar.

It did have a Temac HG, but for the oil it isn't immediately obvious where it had failed...

I could have got it cleaner, but I didn't want to risk scratching the head and didn't really have anything to get it spotless.

Did it up as per the Haynes manual, for better or worse. 200 miles and some, er, 'assertive' city gear changes and all the fluids remain nominal. Still got the oil warning light on but I didn't have time to clean the sensor or flush anything. It had sat for a few days with the sump plug out so the worst of it is definitely gone. It sounds and pulls much better now.

Still have the timing chain to do this weekend, so I will run some engine flush through it, re-seal the sump and fill with some 5W-40 fully synth. Ought to flush the coolant too, I'll use a dishwasher tablet. Never spend money when you don't have to!

Dishwasher tablet will do the job perfectly fine.

Or... If you have some dishwasher cleaner, that works even better.

When my old cars HG went I had to send the head off to be skimmed at a machine shop. Only cost £20 - surely you'd have been best off, otherwise you may be back to square one soon enough...

Why the timing chain?? ... These things are there for engine life!

Why the timing chain?? ... These things are there for engine life!

Because they sound like someone has chucked a bag of spanners in there.

It can cause some running problems too. The chain rattles and is slack and can cause slight variances in timing which lead to hesitation and misfires.

I changed my chain as the noise was annoying and I was getting a funny splutter going from low revs. This went away after changing the chain.

Phil

I understand now ... My car is a very low mileage; less than 50k ... I don't have such problems yet

Trust me, you will if you keep the car for any length of time

I'm planning for a full rebuild with more aggressive camshaft towards the end of next year. The car is old and for now I am doing periodic maintenance which has not been done by the earlier owners.

When I had my MPI Fabia it had only 90k on the clocks and the Chain is to be changed at 120k miles (I do believe) and its sounded rough as hell! Now the oil it had was black, and i mean it was black! The timing chain cover was terrible. might even have some pics to put up

I think i always used 10W40 oil in the MPI, sadly I used some pretty good oil then she spat it all over the road with a faulty oil pressure sensor. Ended up using ASDA home brand 10W40 but she ran just as well even after 3000 Miles. After that I sold her and i believe shes still running well!

Found my pics

With the sump off you can see how the oil was & the poor sealant job, turns out there was some residue in the Oil pickup too! it was stuck on the filter!.

Timing Chain Slack 1

Timing Chain Slack 2

View of the Timing Chain from O/S Wheel Arch, may I note I had also dropped the engine down on the O/S too, technically the engine was being held in place by a Jack on the gearbox/lower (Dogbone) engine mount

If you want any extra pics have a look at the Album I made on photobucket: http://s264.beta.photobucket.com/user/Warlord_1011/library/Rattys%20Repairs

If you want any help or advice just gimme a shout, I know it may sound weird but i loved every second of working on the 1.4 MPI

I used to love my MPI as well. Was brilliant.

Like an old clockwork toy - you could take it apart and it was blatantly obvious how it all went back together that you could work on it easily. A true self-maintenance car.

They can withstand SOOOOOO much abuse too. I have no idea when the oil was last changed in that. But it still ran ok ish :p

If you want any help or advice just gimme a shout, I know it may sound weird but i loved every second of working on the 1.4 MPI

Thanks man! ... I really appreciate it ... I will post the rebuild and ask for your advice ... on the other hand, helping me is out of question because I am living in the arabian gulf :p

They can withstand SOOOOOO much abuse too. I have no idea when the oil was last changed in that. But it still ran ok ish :p

I drive mine flat out all the time!! .... Such an amazing engine that performs no matter what happens ... You have to see my clio 197; it is so picky and sensitive it is disgusting sometimes!

Thanks man! ... I really appreciate it ... I will post the rebuild and ask for your advice ... on the other hand, helping me is out of question because I am living in the arabian gulf :p

I drive mine flat out all the time!! .... Such an amazing engine that performs no matter what happens ... You have to see my clio 197; it is so picky and sensitive it is disgusting sometimes!

French car - chocolate engine block. Enough said.

They can withstand SOOOOOO much abuse too. I have no idea when the oil was last changed in that. But it still ran ok ish :p

You think that's bad?

My little MPI managed to destroy an auxilliary belt on the way home from work once. I managed to get home just in time... The engine boiled over and it dumped all its coolant.

Thankfully enough - with a full coolant flush and replacing the aux belt - it fired up first time and still never missed a beat.

Like. A. Tank.

So at the side of the road outside the family home, and over the whole weekend...

The hardest bolts were the ones holding the cat to the manifold. Nearly got stuck on the awkward angle, eventually did it from below with a UJ, series of extensions and a breaker bar.

It did have a Temac HG, but for the oil it isn't immediately obvious where it had failed...

I could have got it cleaner, but I didn't want to risk scratching the head and didn't really have anything to get it spotless.

Did it up as per the Haynes manual, for better or worse. 200 miles and some, er, 'assertive' city gear changes and all the fluids remain nominal. Still got the oil warning light on but I didn't have time to clean the sensor or flush anything. It had sat for a few days with the sump plug out so the worst of it is definitely gone. It sounds and pulls much better now.

Still have the timing chain to do this weekend, so I will run some engine flush through it, re-seal the sump and fill with some 5W-40 fully synth. Ought to flush the coolant too, I'll use a dishwasher tablet. Never spend money when you don't have to!

Give you a tip...

The haynes manual (and even the manufacturer spec) for the torquing on these heads is ridiculously low and can be the cause of what seems like head gasket failure when in fact it's down to a poorly torqued head.

The fix?

As the engine is based around an ancient design, you can safely take these words into consideration:

"A wise old man (Well, he did run a Skoda service centre) once advised me that 105, 120 and 130 Estelles always need gasket sealant on their head gaskets. And that the published torque figure for the head bolts was too low. So sealant and 50 lb ft it was then."

Lifted from:

http://freespace.virgin.net/skoda.chap/tbc/tbctune.htm

Your MPI engine? Yep - based around the old Estelle engine.

And if 50lb/ft of torque is good enough for a rally car? I'm sure it's good enough for a daily driver

I used new bolts and torqued mine up good and proper when I did mine. Never had a problem right up to selling it.

Also when you do the timing chain Haynes suggests you find TDC, im not entirely sure why that matters, but I did it anyway, and to then keep it there I took the starter motor off (Very difficult as the ratchet kept hitting the N/S wheel arch in the engine bay) and put a very large screw driver in the teeth of the flywheel to keep it in place, otherwise if it moves too much your timing will be off and it could go drastically wrong

It is very difficult to get the starter motor off but it is an option if you want to make it a bit safer when replacing the timing chain :p

French car - chocolate engine block. Enough said.

looooooooool ... I have not had any problems with the engine block yet :p .... So many other problems though :/ ... I still got it because I feel it as an extension of my body when I drive it. It is crazy how communicative and precise this car is.

You think that's bad?

My little MPI managed to destroy an auxilliary belt on the way home from work once. I managed to get home just in time... The engine boiled over and it dumped all its coolant.

I would never do that to my MPI .... That is too much!

Nice, just bought one of these, luckily mine had jsut had this work done but respect for the work on the side of the road!!